Electronic Arts Has Reportedly Shelved DICE’s Pitch for ‘Star Wars Battlefront 3’ and Is Instead Developing Two New Single-Player Games
Some bad news has come for Star Wars Battlefront fans, as Electronic Arts has opted not to greenlight a third installment in the popular series of Star Wars shooters for financial reasons. However, EA will be developing two new single-player Star Wars games.
Star Wars Battlefront, as a franchise, has not had great luck at Electronic Arts despite strong sales. The original title in DICE’s rebooted series was rushed to meet a deadline in time for the release of The Force Awakens, with its scope confined to the original trilogy era with no story campaign. While the second game had a much greater variety of content available from the start and a clear plan for free DLC, the launch was marred by outrage over predatory microtransactions, which had to be overhauled at the last minute as the company had to rethink its economic model for the title. Thanks to a devoted team of developers supporting the game post-launch, Battlefront II really turned around and became a success story – but its time in the sun was cut short as EA moved all available resources toward preparing the next titles in their Battlefield series.
Now, word has suggested that after many of the developers that helped with Battlefront II‘s post-launch support either left EA or were reassigned elsewhere, that EA has rejected a pitch from DICE for a third game, once again in favor of developing more titles in their Battlefield series (which, incidentally, served as the blueprint for what would become Star Wars Battlefront). The reasoning for this appears to be due to the scale of the title, which would either have to be scaled back at launch to the disappointment of fans who want them to go bigger, or for DICE to go bigger and have to make a game that would be harder to recoup the company’s investment on. (Ignoring, of course, that a title bigger than Battlefront II and a smooth launch would likely sell better and pay for its additional expenses.) With that being said, EA is still developing new Star Wars titles, including starting work on two new single-player games, one of which is likely the sequel to Jedi: Fallen Order.
IGN’s Tom Henderson revealed this information in a Twitter thread, which you can read below:
Battlefront 3 was a pitched title from DICE, but ultimately, the title was shot down by EA due to licensing costs.
“It got turned down because it takes 20% more sales to make the same money”, said one past developer.
— Tom Henderson (@_Tom_Henderson_) November 20, 2021
Since several key developers that worked on the Battlefront series have since left the DICE studio in the past year, including the likes of Battlefront II’s creative director Dennis Bränvall, core gameplay designer Christian Johannesé, and lead hero designer Guillaume Mroz (cont)
— Tom Henderson (@_Tom_Henderson_) November 20, 2021
These processes are standard throughout game development and although it might appear counterproductive to start pitching concepts on one title before the other has launched, it did not take away the development time of #Battlefield2042 (before the rumors start).
— Tom Henderson (@_Tom_Henderson_) November 20, 2021
It should also be said that development can change at any given time and the next title has started development, bur if Battlefront 3 ever gets greenlit and starts development for whatever reason, I'll break the news.
— Tom Henderson (@_Tom_Henderson_) November 20, 2021
EA infamously indicated that they were over making single-player titles, but between the complications with the Battlefront series and the unexpected breakout success of Jedi: Fallen Order, they’ve changed their focus to be more about Star Wars games that you can play by yourself. Fans frustrated with EA’s approach can at least take solace with the fact that, since their exclusivity license is all but wrapped up now, more developers will be able to take a crack at Star Wars video games – and it’s always possible that another developer could get the opportunity to develop more Battlefront titles in EA’s place. As it stands, the only Star Wars game from EA that appears to be a sure thing is a sequel to Fallen Order. The company has indicated that they will reveal their plans for future Star Wars games at their next EA Play presentation, which will happen on July 22 of next year.
Grant has been a fan of Star Wars for as long as he can remember, having seen every movie on the big screen. When he’s not hard at work with his college studies, he keeps himself busy by reporting on all kinds of Star Wars news for SWNN and general movie news on the sister site, Movie News Net. He served as a frequent commentator on SWNN’s The Resistance Broadcast.
